The bacterial pathogenesis of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) otitis media is not well understood. Evidence suggests that bacterial adherence and delivery of bacterial toxins on the target epithelial cells are critical for the pathogenesis of otitis media. The goals of this project are to immortalize middle ear epithelial cells, to study bacterial adherence by using immortalized cell lines and to identify bacterial adhesion molecules and their potential binding receptor. Two middle ear epithelial cell lines from the rat and chinchilla have been immortalized by infecting the primary cell cultures with adeno l2- SV40 hybrid virus. We are in the final process of characterizing these cell lines. We are also in the process of studying the bacterial adherence on the immortalized cell lines with bacteria collected from middle ear effusion or nasopharynges of patients with otitis media to identify highly adherent strains that can be used to further investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of bacterial adherence to the host epithelial cells.